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ABSTRACT
Pressure ulcer is a localized damage to the skin or underlying tissue that usually occurs over a bony prominent area as a result of usually long term pressure that occurs by staying in one position for too long. Pressure ulcers are a largely preventable patient safety problem. Nurses are primarily involved in the direct care and take forefront of providing pressure injury prevention care. The objectives this research work aims to achieve are to, ascertain pressure ulcer preventive measures utilized among the nurses in the selected hospitals, to assess the perceived effectiveness of these measures and to determine the barriers to the utilization of the measures. This study employed descriptive design method which involves description of events, situation and phenomena. The area of study was the registered Nurses in separated wards in the University Of Benin Teaching Hospital and Central Hospital, Benin City, Edo state, Nigeria. A total of three hundred and four (304) Nurses were sampled from a total population of eight hundred and ninety five (895) Nurses. Convenience sampling was adopted. A well-structured questionnaire was used to elicit items relevant to the research objectives. Prior to administration the instrument was tested for reliability and the Cronbach alpha coefficient for each construct gave a reliable value of 0.842, the data was analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The level of significance was set at p<0.05. Questions on pressure ulcer preventive measures, effectiveness and barriers affecting use were analyzed in frequency and percentage. The study showed that the highest preventive measure used was risk assessment 218(71.7%), the most effective measure being risk assessment 205(67.4%) and limited equipment for prevention of pressure ulcer 172(56.6) being the greatest barrier. The study therefore recommends that hospital facilities should overcome the barriers to effective pressure ulcer prevention.
